Did you know that back in ’79, you could have bought a V8-powered, four speed manual equipped Grand Prix? Neither did I – and I thought I knew a lot about classic Pontiacs.
Turns out you discover things you didn’t know about pretty regularly.
I knew that, in ’79, it was possible to get a Trans-Am with this particular V8 (the 4.9 liter 301) and a four speed manual transmission as a kind of consolation prize in lieu of the much more desirable (at the time) 6.6 liter, 400 cubic inch Pontiac V8 that was optional with the Trans-Am and paired exclusively with the four speed manual that year. It was much more desirable because it was much bigger and much stronger. It carried a 220 horsepower rating – which was a big number in ’79 – but Pontiac had stopped making the 400 during the 1978 calendar year; it was selling off the relative handful of 400s left over from ’78 in ’79 Trans-Ams. These sold off quickly, which left Pontiac (and its dealers) with a problem. There were buyers who’d either ordered a 400 with the four-speed Trans-Am or wanted a Trans-Am with a manual transmission and were not interested in buying a TA that came with the standard 403 (also 6.6 liters but 403 cubic Oldsmobile) inches and the automatic that was the only transmission available with this engine.
Enter the 4.9 liter/301 V8 – which was much smaller and made only 150 horsepower – but was available with a four speed manual. Trans-Am buyers who wanted the 400/four speed combo were offered the 301/four speed combo and given a discount. I wrote another article about this a couple of months ago.
Well, while cruising around YouTube, I found the video embedded with this article, which details a basically brand-new 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix with the 301/four speed combo. According to the guy who did the video, the car is extremely rare – and not just because it only has 800-something original miles. 
Go back a few years – to the earlier ’70s – and manual-equipped iterations of what are known as personal luxury coupes were fairly common. These cars were muscle cars for grown-ups. They were often opulent as well as brutal; the two best example are probably the Grand Prix SSJ that was personally designed by John Delorean – it was available with a high-compression 428 and a four speed – and the Buick GSX Stage I (and II), which came with a 500-plus ft.-lb. 455 Buick V8 and was also available with a four speed.
But after about 1975, these personal luxury coupes had become much less muscular. They were chiefly seen as stylish two-doors for the buyer who didn’t need four doors. If you weren’t around in the mid-late ’70s, you’d probably never believe how hugely popular these cars once were. The Oldsmobile Cutlass (which was closely related to both the Pontiac Grand Prix and the Chevy Monte Caro) was one of the top one or two best-selling cars in the U.S. at the time. The Chrysler Cordoba – introduced in ’75 – was another. It was a smash hit.
It’s not a wonder why they were so popular. They were big – relative to today – for openers. Relative to today’s cars, that is. Five people could sit pretty comfortably inside a Grand Prix, which could be had with three-across bench seats. The trunk was huge, relative to the purse-sized pouches you get with a typical modern car.
And you got (or could get) a V8 engine at an affordable price. Check out the window sticker that’s still sticking to the side glass of this ’79 GP. How’s $6,800 grab you? Yeah, it grabbed me also.
I put that number in the ol’ inflation calculator and the number that came back is about $33,000. Rattle that around in yo’ head for a bit. Would you be interested in a brand-new mid-sized, rear-wheel-drive personal luxury coupe with a V8 engine and a manual transmission for $33k? Is a frog’s bunghole water-tight?
Well, maybe it’s just me. It is possible I’m demented and that I not fully appreciate the magnificence of a turbocharged 1.5 liter-is engine driving the front wheels through a CVT automatic in a crossover shaped transportation appliance. That I am a kook for not wanting to be “assisted” while driving. I do not think I need “assistance.”
What I need is a car like this – and maybe you do, too.
. . .
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Eric, you aren’t they only one that would love a car like the large personal luxury V8 coupe of the 70’s.
I’m 52 and single so a car like that would be perfect for me. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong age and time. Be way better for a road trip car as well then most new cars.
At some point I will probably buy a late 60’s or 70’s coupe. But since I live in the rust belt, it can only be daily driven in the summer.
My first car was a 79 Grand Prix. White on white. No manual though.. Wish I still had it. I have a pic somewhere of that car, a 93 grand am gt, and a 96 grand prix gt …all white cars together in a row in our backyard. My Dad had a thing for white cars.
Hi Chris,
They were such great cars; I think those of us who were there failed to appreciate just how great they were. Now we do – when it’s too late.
I think it was only the first 2 years of the downsized G body cars, too bad because those cars were ugly until the 81(?) reskin.
“I do not think I need assistance.” — eric
The damned cheek! Having shot your leg off, Big Gov offers you a free crutch. And you spurn its generous offer so breezily!
Yesterday I read an article by a reporter who flew in a DC-3 that’s still in commercial service in rural Colombia, South America … 84 years after its manufacture in 1942, and 90 years after the DC-3’s introduction in 1936.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/world/americas/plane-douglas-dc3-wwii-colombia.html
Res ipsa loquitur. The thing speaks for itself: this is a monumentally great design. It embodies three qualities that are no longer valued: 1. Simplicity; 2. Maintainability; 3. Electromechanical rather than electronic technology.
Probably it’s been retrofitted with modern nav aids. But the robust airframe with its 1,830-cubic-inch, 14-cylinder Twin Wasp radial engines remains the same. Very few examples of contemporary transport equipment, whether aircraft or cars, will be in operation 90 years from now, much less paying their way in commercial service.
‘The DC-3 was designed by a team led by chief engineer Arthur E. Raymond over two years. The prototype first flew on December 17, 1935, the 32nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, with Douglas chief test pilot Carl Cover at the controls.’ — Wikipedia
Having executed the first truly modern low-wing, wide-body (for its time) aircraft configuration, did they know already on Dec 17, 1935 that they were setting an historic milestone? I reckon so.
Morning, Jim!
Yup. I used to think along similar lines back in the ’90s when I was driving an old VW Beetle. Though mine was a ’74, it was fundamentally designed in the early 1930s – and it was still a car that could be daily driven in modern traffic. A Model A Ford – designed during the same era – cannot be realistically driven in modern traffic. One could realistically drive a Beetle in traffic today. The basic design is 100 years old and still operationally viable.
>One could realistically drive a Beetle in traffic today.
Hey, Eric,
Some still are. Not all that many, but thera are a few still around, in working order and capable of being driven on the Autobahn – excuse me, Interstate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJiu5HGUIAo
‘The Volkswagen Beetle was conceived by Adolf Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche alongside his engineering team in the 1930s.’ — Goolag AI
In a breakthrough, starting in 1934, Ferdinand Porsche designed one of the first modern, aerodynamically acceptable vehicles. By contrast, Ford’s Model A from 1927, with its clunky square greenhouse, still clearly derived from a horse-drawn carriage.
Germany’s Kraft durch Freude (KdF)-wagen [VW Beetle] went into production two years after the Douglas DC-3. Both were design tours de force, establishing in one bold stroke the configuration of cars and aircraft that followed.
Sadly, the KdF-wagen was not available with a CVT transmission. /sarc
Of course Jim if they had only waited 20 years to invade Holland they could have stolen the plants for a CVT tranny from DAF.
https://classicmotorsports.com/video/video-meet-variomatic-1950s-version-modern-cvt/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variomatic
Apparently it’s a doable conversion to put in a newer overdrive tranny into a Model A and you can go a steady 60 miles an hour or so with the stock engine. The interstate might be a little fast for it but most other roads are easily doable then.
Hi Landru,
Even with OD, a top speed of only 60 makes for a pretty iffy highway ride. My old Beetle could do 70 without blowing up and I could (and did) push it over 80 a few times.
I came across a couple articles on it in a Model A magazine and I believe Hemmings. In one of them they mentioned that the hydraulic brakes came off a ’49 perhaps along with the later wheels. Either way it should make a good car for use on secondary roads.
I’ve driven behind cars from the 30s that were not upgraded. No good spot to pass and not enough power to pass on a double yellow. Whether “legal” or not sometimes you just got to pass.
Hi Landru,
One of the Beetle’s great virtues (which Jim or Chris touched on) is that it is aerodynamic/low to the ground. I have lots of personal experience driving old Beetles and while they are primitive in many ways relative to modern cars, it is more in a creature comfort sense than a practical sense. For example, a Beetle can take the curves down Bent Mountain at normal road speeds and even faster than that without it being precarious/dangerous. A Model A – which sits much higher and (early models) rides on conestoga wagon-like wheels – is precarious to drive at normal road speeds on a windy/curving road. The Beetle’s brakes are also competent, chiefly because the car only weighs about 1,800 pounds. The Model A was several hundred pounds heavier.
Mind: I am not shitting on the Model A; far from it. But it is truly an antique car, functionally speaking. The Beetle is also an antique – but it’s still functional. That’s remarkable, in my book!
“The DC-3 was designed by a team led by chief engineer Arthur E. Raymond over two years.”
-LOL. Try that today. Imagine all the grift and affirmative action and identity politics you’d need today. The design team would be led by a Girlboss of Color, and you’d need to have gays, lesbians and transgenders every step of the way, not to mention hordes of government bureaucrats ensuring compliance with green initiatives and covid-19 policies. The actual engineering would be outsourced to pajeets. No white men need apply.
It would take 20 years instead of two, billions of dollars, and would result in an inferior airplane.
And it would take a couple white guys toiling unrecognized in obscurity to make it happen anyway.
Dear Mr Peters,
I came to this site thinking I would find out a thing or two about tappets and oil changes. Boy, did my head spin! This site is one of the most profound and thought provoking I have ever come across. And not ONE puppy video. Come on guys ’n’ gals — let’s have one, at least.
You recently wrote:
“In indecent times, it is sometimes necessary to do indecent things. As an example: In decent times, it is indecent to mock a frail old person. But Mitch McConnell is an evil person. His age and debility doesn’t give him a pass.
Sometimes, good men must do things that may appear ‘depraved’ but which aren’t because they are necessary and justified. I think it is specifically the obligation of good men to do what must be done sometimes. That it is a hard thing to do doesn’t mean it’s a bad (much less depraved) thing to have to do.”
This goes to the heart of the greatest moral dilemma in Human existence.
I would like to propose that, in order to make Humanity more HUMANE, we should all act in a way that enhances Human Nature. If faced with a rabid dog, I would phone the vet, and have him fire an anaesthetic dart. Then we would search for the vector of the disease, and close it off, and tell EVERYONE what the vector was and how it can be prevented in future. NO KILLING REQUIRED.
We grow as Human Beings by behaving humanely. Not by becoming killers. What on earth good does killing anyone do? Hasn’t History proven that to us by now? Or shall we give it just one more try, and maybe it will make the world a better place this time?
Regarding “In decent times, it is indecent to mock a frail old person”
Remember ’Sticks and stones may break my bones’? I believe attacking ne’er do wells verbally, using sarcasm and brutal honesty is a highly effective weapon. That’s all been shut down now by ‘hate speech’ laws. They don’t want us calling these bast***s out, because they cannot stand to be mocked and censured. It’s their Achille’s Heel. I want them lambasted to oblivion. We used to have a TV show here in the UK called ‘That Was The Week That Was.’ It was merciless. Prime Minister Harold Wilson had the show taken off the air before the 1964 General Election, because he knew how trenchant and influential it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Was_the_Week_That_Was
We need TV programmes that hold our miscreants up to the light like a semi-transparent, wriggling bug. TV doesn’t dare do that now. That’s no coincidence. I met a TV producer once, in circumstances I won’t go into, and he was such a woke, fem-boy, company-man, I nearly gagged. He and his ‘husband’ had just surrogated themselves a son. My blood ran cold.
I in no way disrespect you, Mr Peters, by the way. I enjoy your wit:
“Is a frog’s bunghole water-tight?” made me laugh out loud like my mother-in-law.
Your honesty, clarity and intelligence came as a surprise, to be quite frank. I pictured you as a man in a blue overall, down an inspection pit covered in grease. Happy and smiling and trustworthy. But not especially erudite. Just goes to show how wrong one can be, and that it’s dodgy to jump to conclusions.
Yours sincerely, SS.
TW3, no THAT was comedy.
However, I often like to think of Eric in his coveralls with a peaky workman’s cap(in brown). Handlebar mustache, optional.
Morning, Mark!
I actually do have an outfit. A jumpsuit from the TV series, Lost. Remember that one? Mine says “motor pool.” I ought to wear it when I do podcasts.
Saw one of these and you can join the Ragtime Racers…
https://www.peakyhat.com/products/the-calder
BTW, Ragtime Racers bring out pre-War race cars and run them at select vintage events. I say them in Chattanooga a few years back. Pre-War as in WWI.
“saw”
Fixed!
Good morning, Stephen!
First, thank you for the kind words; also the thoughtful words. I agree in general with the points you’ve made, especially as regards ridicule. It is indeed a potent weapon, precisely because the devil (so to speak) is a proud spirit who cannot stand to be mocked. Ergo, he must be mocked. I do, however, also think that there are times when a grievous wound must be cauterized. When a cancer must be removed – destroyed. Self defense is a primal right. A necessity, without which there can be no justice. I can and do have grace for mistakes that people make as I have made them (and surely will make them again). We are human, not perfect. That said, I have no grace for evil. For deliberate, malicious action. My position is that this sort of action must be met with implacable justice because anything less than that is to compound the crime.
Fauci is someone I would not exert the slightest effort to save if I saw him trapped in a burning car. I am not suicidally empathetic. Perhaps that makes me a cold man. I think it is necessary, sometimes, to be a cold man.
Fair enough, Mr Peters. Thank you for your reply.
We’ll get all this sorted out in time, hopefully.
“there are times when a grievous wound must be cauterized. When a cancer must be removed – destroyed.”
Agreed. But what exactly is this cancer? Can you define it precisely, drill down to its essence, prescribe the necessary solution?
You just had to do this! My daily driver from 1984 to 2005 was this car, in that awful pale yellow paint with ‘camel’ interior. Mine was an automatic though behind the 301 V8. Same wheel covers. Bench seat with fold down center armrest, though contoured each side it was very comfortable. Two doors = no pillar next to your head excellent visibility. Excellent brakes, no ABS then. I put gas shocks, a boneyard sourced rear sway bar and Goodyear Eagle ST 70 series tires & it was a blast to take long trips thru the mountain pass twisties.
Some other notes, although downsized from the 1977 behemoths it was still body on frame so with decent tires it was Caddy quiet inside. Mine had the extra sound deadening panels under the dash. AC, tilt, cruise like every decent car should have!
Miss you Old Yeller.
I would love that car (for thet price) especially now that my body is getting creaky on my 80th journey around the sun. The very first car that I bought was a ‘62 Olds Cutlass F-85; was smallish in size but had a 4 barrel V-8 and was fun to drive but eventually the rust got to it as it did to most cars back then.
If one found a decent car from that era I wonder how it would run on ethanol polluted gas if it could be kept away from road salt.
Morning Mike.
Since ethanol gas causes an engine to run leaner you would have to rejet the carb so it ran as intended however based on how affordable closed loop TBI systems are becoming that if it was your daily driver I would just convert it over. Also based on the different burn rate of the fuel you would have to recurve and retime the distributor.